Going Gaga

August 17, 2011

OK, maybe we are too sensitive about this stuff, but did you happen to catch this ad at the top of the OWH’s web page the other day? It is one of those annoying expando ads which you have to either click on to open or get rid of, or just mouse-over. Don’t like ‘em.

Anywho, note the image on the right of the ad:

Two shirtless dudes restraining a topless chick? Or were they just helping her up from the floor?

Or at least we think that’s a chick. Right?

Anywho, nice advertising choice on the home page OWH. Next time maybe you should use the warning you had for the Lady Gaga video you linked to: “(NOTE: The video contains scenes that may not be appropriate for viewers of all ages. Discretion is advised.)”

***

While ObamaCare is still the hated mess by the business community and is being challenged in court to this day, it is still (thanks to Senator Ben “Cornhusker Kickback” Nelson) the current law of the land.

And the latest point of the law is now staring Nebraskans in the face.

One of the things that has to be addressed is forming the so called “health exchanges” which are health coverage market places intended to make it easier for individuals and small employers to shop, compare, and enroll in health insurance coverage. The deal is, the state can create its own exchange, join a group of states to do it, or just let the federal government take over the whole thing.

If it does “nothing” the federal government WILL take over the exchange and the last line of defense for Nebraskans against fully nationalized health care will vanish. Of course, this is what many on the left would like anyway — a single payer system run out of Washington. (And ask a friend in England how awesome that is. Or any Canadian who comes to the States for surgery.)

Anyway, the deadlines for the exchange are coming hard and fast. So a group of doctors, hospitals and insurers has proposed their plan for a state exchange. The “Nebraska Health Care Alliance” has proposed an exchange run by those who have experience with this stuff, and would give state control of the exchange, in Lincoln, rather than to Washington bureaucrats trying to give some sort of nationwide solution.

There also is a group made up of AARP and the liberal Appleseed foundation which wants a Nebraska exchange, but does not want a medical insurance program run by people with experience in medicine or insurance. And they want to pick and chose and limit the number of carriers as well.

In any case, the legislature and Governor have this headed at them like a freight train. Sure we hope it is derailed by the U.S. Supreme Court — but whether you think it is likely or not, the reality is that if it is not struck down, and the state exchange is not formed, the Feds take over in Nebraska.

This is what Ben Nelson hath wrought.

***

And we see that Jane Kleeb is wandering the streets of the nation’s capital — and into FoxNews’s studios to chat with Laura Ingraham. (Hey, we are glad to see that we have nailed down that Jane is still a “Democratic Activist”.)

The only question now is, will she get herself arrested by laying down with Danny Glover and her buddies in front of the White House gates. And if not, why not? And then, does she smile for the mugshot? Or just smirk? Or maybe make that activist frowny face.

Anywho, Jane may want to next wander into the offices of the pro-Democrat Washington Post to discuss the Canadian Tar Sands oil.

Tar sands crude is not appealing; it is low-grade, it is hard to extract, it is difficult to refine and it produces a lot of carbon emissions. But if it is to be burned anyway, there’s little reason for America to reject it, as long as Keystone XL can transport it across the plains safely. Ms. Clinton should focus on ensuring that, not attempt to deny the dirty realities of American oil dependence.

There goes the Post again, using that word “reality”. It just confuses (liberal) people.

***

We have heard that Congressman Lee Terry’s primary opponent has been showing up at Terry’s town-hall meetings this week — with his campaign manager in tow.

She has been handing out cards to people as they enter, and he makes a bee-line for any camera present afterwards.

Of course he can’t gather people like this on his own, but this is an “interesting” move. Sort of like trolling the high-school prom, stag, to see if anyone is breaking up.

I remember 2008 was a great year until the wheels came off in October, November, but by then we were able to cut costs without damaging the product. And then in ’09, again we weren’t as off as other people. We also had (Sen.) Ben Nelson, so we had a lot of political money come into the marketplace because Ben Nelson was one of the deciding votes on health care.

Well, nice to know that the Cornhusker Kickback had some sort of effect on the economy. Gee, what ELSE could Nelson do to increase ad revenues at the TV stations? The mind boggles…

***

And back on the newspaper editorial scene, the Kearney Hub had a few choice words about Senator Ben Nelson’s voting record:

Sen. Ben Nelson doesn’t want to balance the federal budget on senior citizens. Well, no one wants to do that, but if Washington doesn’t get its fiscal house in order, senior citizens — and everyone else, too — will have much bigger problems than whether Social Security benefits are trimmed.

Nelson’s rhetoric sounds good, but it’s just another articulation of “business as usual” from Washington: Lots of hand-wringing and dramatic sighing, but no guts to make substantive change, especially if it irritates a coveted constituency.

Engaging in drama while gutlessly playing to the senior votes? That’s not the Nellie WE know…

***

Finally, Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle is not happy that the City Council weighed-in on the Fire Union contract that the city charter says they are supposed to weigh-in on.

You may remember that Suttle said he would veto ANY changes that the council made to his deal with the Fire Union.

50 comments

Please see @JRubinBlogger on Twitter. Then truthfully tell your blog readers that the WaPo is liberal. Also, when are you going to tell your readers that the ACA saves the state and the Gov. $$$?? Conservatives listened to the CBO during the Budget deal and the Debt Limit Increase, but then decry the CBO to be partisain and innaccurate when it scored the ACA. And I don’t remember any Republicans railing againts the CBO during the Bush years? Weird, I know.

So the WaPo has a token conservative blogger. That proves it isn’t liberal. Riiiiight.

No one is claiming the CBO is partisan or inaccurate. But CBO can only score as Congress lets it score. If Congress includes a massive Medicare cut that will actually never happen, the CBO has to suppress its derisive laughter and pretend the cut is going to happen.

I completely agree about the advertisement. A lot of kids are also encouraged to read the paper for school–so this is what they will see when they get to the webpage? Come on, World-Herald, that’s really inappropriate.

I don’t so much agree about the health care exchange issue, though. It’s not true that “the last line of defense for Nebraskans against fully nationalized health care will vanish”. Most Nebraskans will still be getting insurance like they do now through a private company like Blue Cross or United, regardless of what happens with the exchange. It’s also not true that the AARP proposal doesn’t want to include people with expertise in the health care industry. They just don’t want the companies involved in and profiting from the exchange to be running it themselves, which makes sense to me. If the exchange is supposed to be helping consumers compare and select plans, why would entities like Blue Cross or Alegent be the best choice to control it?

By the way, I think that’s a skinny guy in the ad. It looks like gay male soft porn. Doubtful I’d ever go near anywhere called ‘Republic of Couture’ anyway, but that ad would seal it for me. Maybe the agency had the Omaha World Herald confused with The Advocate?

RWP, what makes The Washington Post not liberal is its long-held position as the leading newspaper outlet for Neocon warmongers, its support of Bush’s wars and attempted Social Security privatization, its endorsement of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, and its publishing of all kinds of right wing op-eds. Its regular contributors have included right wingers Charles Krauhammer, George Will, Robert Kagan, Robert Samuelson, Bill Kristol, as well as right-leaning phony liberals such as Richard Cohen and the late David Broder. It also played a key role in the MSM’s trashing of Al Gore which put Bush in the White House.

The Washington Post is still a liberal newspaper. The exceptions cited by Don Kuhns prove the rule. And the lineup columnists says nothing about the Post’s own editorial positions, which overwhelmingly support Democrat-favorable views.

Just because a paper is less liberal than the New York Times doesn’t make it a conservative-leaning publication! And just because the WaPo hasn’t leaked national security documents as frequently as the NYT doesn’t make it an advocate for assertive military & foreign policy positions, either.

You have to figure the most disappointed guy in Omaha is Steve LeClair after last night’s city council meeting. Now he has to keep up the pretense that he actually works as a firefighter. It’s hard work faking those time cards, huh Steve????

My view is that Leavenworth Street is a must-read blog, the author of which – although I do not share most of SS’s positions – has a Gr8 sense of humor and a pulse on the political heartbeat of the Plains.

As far as what Leavenworth Street itself is for: writing about what’s really happening in Cornhusker country as opposed to the sanitized stories that spring daily from Nebraska’s two dailies that wouldn’t be alive right now if it weren’t for those lucrative, for-profit college ads that shimmy and shake at each and every reader and who are bombarded with the untrue message that college helps you achieve the American dream (these days it turns you into an indentured servant for life) and-you-should-take-out-private-predatory-student-loans-at-sixty-five-years-of-age-even so we usurious student loan lenders can build more houses out at Big Sandy.

Two top debaters have concurred that my Posts are germane to your concerns about the OWH ad.

They’re talking about your ilk again. The left seems to think we right-wingers all have ilks, because it’s always ‘you and your ilk’. I’ve looked into getting an ilk, but I can only find them used on eBay. Anyone know a good new ilk dealer in the Lincoln/Omaha metro?

Or maybe they mean ‘elk’, and they’re just lousy spellers. Don’t know what I’d do with an elk.

Wow, such hate for Congressman Terry? He must really be doing something good to bring out such emotion from his haters. Must be all the constituent service and Telecom and Energy Committee legislation that they love so much.

We must be as dumb as scott—yeah we are so very jealous of Lee Terry’s accomplishments. Oh hold on my phone is ringing it is the cowardly lion from the wizard of Oz he wants his courage back from Lee Terry—

You have got to be kidding me. The articles on this site are almost carbon copy’s of every other far right website or blog. “Senator._______, who voted for the ________ job crushing debt hiking bill is exactly what’s wrong with this country. Rep. ________ needs to realize that we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.” See how easy that was? I need some good laughs so I check it out every once in a while.

In a November 19, 2008 column, the Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell stated: “I’ll bet that most Post journalists voted for Obama. I did. There are centrists at The Post as well. But the conservatives I know here feel so outnumbered that they don’t even want to be quoted by name in a memo”. So I’m really thinking that the Post is not as conservative as some on the blog would have us believe.

I think that ad would be appropriate if the guys had OFD tattoos and the boy/chick had an “Omaha” one.

8:33–“Scott”–you’re right. But I think the really obnoxious posts on Terry are coming from one, maybe two posters–probably some slug with an opposing campaign. Humor is one thing–but those posts aren’t that.

Terry’s three town hall meetings this week were a positive–shows he remains in touch with residents and is accessible. I wonder if Ben Nelson had any town halls during the recess.

NEpolitic,
I’m pretty sure I called it, “the pro-Democrat Washington Post”.
Of course, the fact that you derive “crazy, liberal, far left” from “pro-Democrat” is more telling than anything else.
And thanks for reading!
SS

Firefighter union leader, Steve LeClair, is threatening to sue Omahans in court if they don’t knuckle under to his demand that taxpayers, not union dues, pay his own salary for him doing no firefighting work, but only for him doing his union job, which is apparently to threaten and strong arm taxpayers. And that officially makes firefighters less than honorable. It makes LeClair a thug. And the fact that Mayor Suttle’s spokesperson said the Mayor will follow the fire union’s lead when deciding whether to negotiate again or prepare for court, makes Suttle at best a tool, bought and owned by union thug LeClair. If Suttle is pulling LeClair’s strings, then Suttle is a tyrant. Either a quisling or gestapo, that’s our Mayor Suttle.

It’s interesting that Street Sweeper doesn’t name Lee Terry’s opponent or show his face. I guess we know who this blog will be rooting for.

Kortezzi, the Post’s in-house editorials consistently reflect the values of the Washington establishment: Neoconservative on foreign policy, pro-corporate on economics and immigration, cautiously liberal on social issues, and highly deferrential to those in power.

Tom White is still smoking mad for losing to Terry, But not so mad he wouldn’t show up to fundraiser Sen Abbie Cornett had. As a matter of fact Sen Steve Lathrop was there as well……. So Cornett ran as a Dem and was elected, then changed to R as in RHINO, and is now courting the twin towers of Dem politico’s? She must be getting ready to run for something else as a Dem?

So who is posting such negative things about Terry?
Is it Tommy White
Is it Steve Lathrop
Or is it Abbie Cornett??

John Ewing…pulling down a police union pension…will be eligible for additional county pension…wants a Congressional pension. His plan? “We need to raise taxes.” Bungled the VonMaur victims relief fund by running afoul of IRS rules and handing money to “victims” of questionable status. Luckily, he will not do even as well as Tom White.

A but Gwen Howard will announce she is running against Terry! You heard it here first. Oh and all the press she gets will flow down hill to her daughter from Chicago who is running to replace her in the Legislature. Maybe she will drag them BOTH down.

I dunno, Chirp. I think a Ewing/Howard primary could be very interesting and a nail biter. If Gwen makes a beeline for the pro-choice more liberal Dem activists, she could win it I think. Whoever organizes best could prevail.

What are you talking about? Ewing did a terrific job of handling the committee that distributed Von Maur victim’s funds. They were cautious about collecting information before making decisions about all of the money, yet they still managed to complete the process in just a few months (which is very rare for this kind of thing). They worked closely with our Congressional Reps to help clear red tape. What IRS rules did he run afoul of? I think that’s basically a libelous claim, and you should be willing to put up some evidence before saying that.

I don’t agree with all of Ewing’s political positions, but I know enough about him to be respectful of the good work he has done. He’s also a pro-lifer, both socially and fiscally conservative, so to be honest I trust him more than most of our GOP politicians to use common sense with money and get useful things done.

Somehow, I think there may be some blowback to the president taking 10 days for vacay right now. Every day is bringing worse news on the economy–DCCC head Debra Wasserman-Schultz said it best: “Obama owns the economy.” Yepper.

Hey “Matt”–you missed a good opportuinioty for a rally for your new committee. Terry had the House chair of the Transportation Committee in Omaha yesterday to tour the river and talk about the flooding. Could result in legislation on Corps’ priorities, in addition to Terry’s House-passed bill to get rid of the ‘flood in progress’ exclusion on insurance policies. FYI for you in case you missed it on the 10 p.m. news or OWH today. Carry on.

Cornett has no reason to trash Terry, her target would be Fortenberry because of redistricting. And since the legislature is not officially partisan, who cares who golfs with her? Deb Fischer and Mike Flood were there as well. What does that mean O Mighty Hmmm?